The present invention relates to a pulse-radar system having a staggered pulse repetition frequency, and more particularly to the compensation of stagger induced modulation in a transmitter RF output.
As is known in the art, when a staggered pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is used in a pulse-radar system, a voltage variation is induced in the transmitter power supply. Such a voltage variation modulates the amplitude and phase of the RF pulses. The filters of a moving target detector (MTD) in the radar system are designed to cancel clutter returns that do not contain this staggered modulation; hence, a limitation on clutter attenuation occurs as a result of such staggered induced modulation on the RF pulses.
Radar systems in the prior art have attempted to deal with the staggered modulation problem by increasing the size of the filter in the transmitter power supply or by discarding power to maintain a constant power supply load which can amount to approximately 20% lost power.